May 25, 2008: Ben Weasel at Reggie's

I never thought I'd actually see the day where Ben Weasel sings Screeching Weasel in front of me live and in person.
But he did on Sunday, and a week later, it feels like a dream. I was right there in front of him, singing along, yet somehow my memory eludes me. It's like I don't remember the show, when in fact, I remember all of it at the same time. Like it didn't even happen.
Anyways, it was awesome. I got there a bit late and missed The Guts, who I wanted to see. But I caught the end of The Leftovers' set, which was very awesome. They did a cover of "A Hard Day's Night," which was really good. After them, Shot Baker went up and rocked, as they usually do. They've got a new album coming out this summer, which I look forward to.
Not too much longer after Shot Baker left the stage, Owen from Weasel Radio came out to introduce Ben Weasel. His bandmates came out, then finally, Mr. Weasel came out and opened the night with "Acknowledge" off Screeching Weasel's album, "Emo." Ben Weasel played a little of everything Sunday night, including some Riverdales.
He played the old ones like "Dingbat" and "This Ain't Hawaii" to "I'm Gonna Strangle You," "Cindy's On Methadone," "The First Day of Spring" and "The First Day of Summer." He closed the set with "Cool Kids," elongating the end of the song, giving everyone in the front a chance to sing, "It's a real cool club and you're not a part of it." It was a lot of fun and made me feel a sense of belonging in an adverse sort of way. Like a "We don't need you, so fuck you" kind of sense. It was nice.
But before I forget, towards the end of the set, Ben told us a story about this rumor of how he hated getting donuts thrown at him on stage, and he said it wasn't true and that nothing of the sort ever even happened. So, following that statement, he brought out boxes and boxes of chocolate donut gems and glazed donuts. I was lucky enough to get the first one tossed out, so I wanted to make sure I hit Ben with it. (Sorry, but at the same time, thanks!) Got him in the chest. I can't imagine how much of a pain in the ass Reggie's was to clean after the show, but it was a lot of fun, and well worth the sticky mess.

Afterwards, my girl took me to this place called "Berlin" where they were holding "Prince Night." I have to admit, it's the first time I've ever been to a gay bar. It kind of felt like I was trapped in a shitty 80s movie all night. The worst part of the night was trying to piss with a line of gay dudes standing behind me. I'm pee shy in straight bars, OK. I was a bit more nervous in the new setting. Regardless, it was a good time.
Pictures are of Ben Weasel and Larry Livermore with Little Type (of Lookout! Records!!!). Oh yeah, and thank you, Little Type (pictured with Larry Livermore), for the buttons!

May 24, 2008: The Queers show at Reggie's

I'm creating a blog for the first time, so until I figure out how to make things fancy, this is what I'll be writing on.
I am going to review albums, shows and things of the sort here as well as banter about topics of relevance as well.
Enough time-wasting.

Saturday, May 24, 2008
Reggie's Rock Club
Chicago

The Queers
Lemuria
Bomb the Music Industry!
Andrew Jackson Jihad
Kepi Ghoulie

I've been promoting this show with posters kindly provided to me by Mike Park, of Asian Man Records for a while now. After hanging up a few around town, Mike put me on Kepi's guest list. Right off the bat, I was very stoked, but since I haven't been on many guest lists before, I waited in line with all the other kids like a moron, missing about half of Kepi's set. It bummed me out, as I wanted to see him the most. The Groovie Ghoulies vocalist played "The Beast With Five Hands" as his last song, so it made everything OK. He also played "The Highwayman" off his solo CD, Yes Depression as well. A familiar tune. It was nice seeing him, as I had never seen the Ghoulies before. I'll keep my fingers crossed.
Andrew Jackson Jihad was OK. They were very folky, kind of like every other band up on the indie scene right now. Your typical scruffy looking (probably vegan) guy with an acoustic guitar and a stand-up bass player singing some Against Me!-sounding songs over and over again. Not horrible, but not too original either.
The next band, Bomb the Music Industry!, intrigued me a bit. They were a 'collective' band, meaning there were no concrete members to it, and the members revolved as the show went from town to town. I'm not 100 percent up on how it works, but I assume there's some tabs somewhere and whoever wants to play as the band for whatever show just learns the music and does it. Kind of interesting, but it still wasn't that good. Just a bunch of amateur kids who want to be on stage singing and whatnot. Very fun, but not so much to look at.
It's more interesting that all of Bomb the Music Industry's mp3s are free via its MySpace page. Somewhere on there, I think it says Matt from Shinobu is on the recordings. So, kind of following the same 'indie-folk/punk' template, Bomb the Music Industry! didn't impress me much overall.
Lemuria was next. Unfortunately, I didn't catch much Lemuria as after being upset about the Kepi thing and then having to sit through two crappy bands, I went next door to drink. But they weren't bad. It's not all that often I see a girl-fronted band. I don't know what it is about that, but it's always more interesting for some reason, and not in a sexist or perverted way at all. It's just that after you see so many dudes singing for months and months of shows on end, it's kind of refreshing in a way to get that change of audio scenery in a live setting.
Anyways, The Queers headlined the gig. I enjoy them, they're fun and all that, but the only beef I have with them is that every time they come to town, they blow through the same set every time. They are a band sitting on a pretty hefty mine of good material, but they play the same fast short songs over and over again. Again, not a bad time, but I would love to hear some of their slower pop stuff live sometime.
The highlight of the night was when Ben Weasel came out to sing "Love Love Love" with The Queers. It was awesome. I had tickets to the Ben Weasel show the next day, so seeing and actually hearing his voice over the PA was a VERY nice appetizer to Sunday night.
But I'll talk about that later. After Mr. Weasel left the stage, Kepi came out to sing some Ramones tunes with The Queers. He did "Kill That Girl" and "Sheena Is a Punk Rocker," both very enjoyable. Seeing that cleared all feelings of angst from before, when I missed a chunk of his solo set.
So, all in all, it was a good show. The beer's overpriced as always and they do get you good on that, but other than that, it was an enjoyable night.